Posts Tagged ‘sustainability’

Veteran Community Tourism Project Directors Kick-Off Countdown to Welcoming Guests to Vorovoro Island with a Call to Ethical Adventure Travelers for Support

Indianapolis, Indiana —January 24, 2013— Bridge the Gap Villages – Fiji, an organization focused on empowering locally-owned hospitality, announced a partnership with the chiefly family of Vorovoro Island in rural Fiji to create a unique and culturally-rich community-based travel destination. The partnership provides local Fijians with education and mentorship opportunities to empower them as business owners in their communities and leverage revenue from tourism to drive the local economy.

Erase the Line in the Sand

The Bridge the Gap Villages (BTGV) vision is to erase the line in the sand between locals and travelers, helping advance the trend of responsible tourism. BGTV is making a long-term commitment through its unique model to Vorovoro Island to sow the seeds of true sustainable tourism over the next 10 years. During the next decade, primary ownership of the joint tourism venture will transfer from BTGV to the land-owning chiefly family, as measurable operational milestones are met.

Tropical Paradise

Vorovoro Island is a remote tropical paradise located in the friendly north of Fiji – an under-developed region sitting on Cakalevu Reef, the 3rd largest in the world. BTGV promotes sustainable community development, environmental and cultural pride, and preservation of this 3,000-year old indigenous area. As part of this local/global business partnership with the chiefly Mali family, income generated from tourism will go directly to education, training, and mentorship programs. Unlike the majority of tourism endeavors in Fiji, where more than 60% of earnings leak back into foreign-owned corporations, BTGV is committed to investing profits back into the success of the local host community of Vorovoro Island.

Crowdfunding Campaign

A crowdfunding campaign on StartSomeGood launches today, allowing responsible tourism supporters and adventure travelers worldwide to contribute to the refurbishment of the island infrastructure, in order to welcome visitors in April 2013, and also to pre-book time on the island, through their donations. In parallel, BTGV is seeking small seed capital from social impact investors to jumpstart the project.

The Vision

The Cahills (left to right) – Lucas, Jimmy, Oliver, Jenny and Bethany

BTGV is the vision of husband and wife partners, Jenny and Jimmy Cahill, who first encountered life on Vorovoro Island in June 2009 after they quit their jobs in Indiana to seek a more meaningful existence for their family, including their three children, aged eight-to-14. They landed on Vorovoro as visitors and soon decided to stay on as Project Directors for the project on-island at the time. After a year, they reluctantly returned to the United States but with a promise to the chiefly family that they would work to develop a business model that would more directly involve the community in collaboration and rewards of true sustainable tourism. Bridge the Gap Villages is the result of two years of those efforts – a for-profit business which drives all revenue directly back into the village until it’s thriving and run by the local community. This innovative model builds on valuable lessons learned from NGOs, non-profit and for-profit tourism endeavors, and input from leading venture philanthropists.

“We believe tourism is a powerful tool with the potential to address serious problem in the world such as poverty, environmental degradation, and cultural breakdown in positive ways,” says co-founder, Jenny Cahill. “Tourism can, and should, provide bi-directional benefits to native communities and visitors alike.”

BTGV guests live, and have the opportunity to work, as part of a cross-cultural village community. Visitors stay in accommodations built in traditional bure styles and enjoy access to activities ranging from reef diving to over-island treks to taking part in cultural activities such as song and dance. Visitors are also welcome and encouraged to create lasting impact by taking part in local community initiatives with the local school and villages. With the rapid growth in the responsible tourist market, and the trend by which travelers want to see their dollars directly invested back into the local economy, BTGV is perfectly positioned to redefine the community tourism model.

Tui Mali, Chief of the Mali Tribe, landowners of Vorovoro, Fiji

Tui Mali, the Chief of the Mali Tribe, says, “We have welcomed the world to our shores in the past, and we are excited to have a direct hand in shaping a bright future for our community with BTGV. The business mentorship program available to our young people through BTGV is unlike anything in Fiji. We hope our guests will take pride in knowing they are part of changing tourism practices, starting with our example on Vorovoro Island.”

Community-based Business Mentorship

All primary employees will be entered into a business mentorship and education program, to assist in planning for small business realization. The high level goal of the project is to help foster a robust set of complementary businesses within the local community. For example, talented artisans who run sessions with visitors will be set up to start their own commercial enterprise to market their handicrafts. Or the farmers who manage chickens on-island can be trained to run a chicken coop for fresh egg production, which could service both the island kitchen as well as the larger Mali tribe. All primary employees will be paired with an apprentice to help pass down the skill sets that are typicallu lost in more mainstream hospitality operations. When they “graduate” to launch their small business, knowledge transfer occurs smoothly and BTGV has empowered another tier of wage earners in the community. Additionally, BTGV: Vorovoro Island will act as a proof point for other social entrepreneurs interested in using this model to partner with indigenous communities.

If you are interested in supporting this BTGV project or booking time on Vorovoro Island, please donate through StartSomeGood here

1) Partnering with these communities to establish a small-scale community based cultural tourism destination that they learn to operate for themselves.

2) Connecting them with business education and mentorship opportunities to support future business development endeavors in their communities and beyond.

Founded in 2012 by veteran community tourism project directors, Bridge the Gap Villages is formally headquartered in Indiana in the United States, with operations in beginning in Fiji in April. For more information, visit www.btgvillages.com.

Environmentally friendly design and sustainability is important in all aspects. The editors at Master of Education Degree Guide, created an excellent infographic on how many colleges and universities across the United States are making a commitment to environmentally friendly design.

Read the facts after the graphics for the complete story. It is a great story on sustainability.

How Universities are Going Green

As the global population increases and more countries become industrialized, resource consumption has skyrocketed. Natural resources by their very nature are finite and this exponential development has made it necessary for the most advanced nations to research methods to conserve resources and develop a less wasteful future. As the centers of research and thought in the country, universities are taking charge and standing as examples of how to conserve resources – take a look at the sustainable practices of some of these standout institutions.

Saving Energy Cutting Costs With Solar Power

Student Initiatives For A Greener Tomorrow

– Smart printing: Printing on both sides of paper takes minimal effort and can cut paper usage in half
– 10,000: Average sheets of paper each students uses annually
– 19.1 million: Number of U.S. college students
– That equals 191 billion sheets of paper!
– 95.5 billion: Reduction in paper use if students were to use double sided printing
– 8,333: Number of sheets of paper produced from 1 tree
– Double sided printing could save up to 11.5 million trees each year!
– Water bottles: Cut down on waste and cost
– Bottled water costs 4,000 – 10,000 X more than tap water
– Without any health difference!
– $1 billion of plastic water bottles are thrown away each year
– It can take up to 1,000 years for plastic to disintegrate
– 2.5 million tons: Annual amount of CO2 produced by water bottle manufacturing

Redouble Your Recycling!

– 4.5 lbs.: Amount of trash the average person generates each day
– That’s 1.5 tons each year!
– The EPA estimates that 75% of this is recyclable
– But only 30% is recycled!
– 21.5 million tons: Amount of food wasted each year
– Composting this waste instead of throwing it away would would reduce as much CO2 emissions as taking 2 million cars off the road!
– Successful businesses have reduced food discards by 50 to 100%
– 50 million: Number of homes that could be powered for 20 years by the wood and paper wasted each year

Five Universities Committed To Long Term Sustainability

– American University: “The American Dream is Green”
– More than 25 buildings on campus are participating in a LEED Volume Existing Building certification project
– Arizona State University: Pursuing complete carbon neutrality
– Generates over 15 megawatts of photovoltaic power
– California Institute of Technology: Home of the 2nd largest U.S. rooftop solar installation
– 8.3 million kilowatt hours: Annual energy savings, reducing greenhouse emissions by 6,000 metric tons
– California State University-Chico: Committed to LEED certification
– Early adopter of the AASHE’s STARS Program
– Self-reporting framework for universities to report and track sustainable development
– Catawba College: Building a sustainable future
– Developed the Environmental Services Department and Center for the Environment
– Plans, implements, and maintains sustainability, waste reduction, and recycling programs

Green Construction

Green construction is one of America’s fastest growing trends. The United States Green Building Council(USGBC) reports that green construction accounts for nearly one-third of all new construction. Over the next five years green construction will grow to more than one-half of all construction. By 2013, green buildings will support nearly 8 million workers across the U.S. Many businesses are trying to capitalize on this trend. Many companies are promoting products and services with an environmentally friendly sales pitch. We do not often think of gas stations and convenience stores as models of sustainability but Iowa based Kum & Go is making a commitment in a big way.

Kum & Go – The ONLY Convenience Store in America Going ‘Green’

Kum & Go, a privately owned Iowa-base company,is the only convenience store chain in America participating in the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. All new concept stores for Kum & Go are being submitted for LEED Certification. In 2012 Kum & Go is anticipating investing over $2 million in ‘green’ improvements. Look at the features at the Kum & Go in Fairfield, Iowa:

Single-Stream Recycling

The store pays for single-stream recycling, keeping valuable resources from ending up in landfills.

LED Lighting

Kum & Go uses highly-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) fixtures inside the coolers, about the gas pumps, around the parking lot, and in interior applications. LEDs use less electricity, give off less heat, and the light is more focused.

Water-Saving Fixtures

Low-flow sink, toilet, and urinal fixtures are used in the store. These fixtures use at least 20% less water then conventional fixtures.

Renewable Fuels

Whenever available, each of Kum & Go’s new stores sells premium, no-lead and ethanol-blended fuels, including E10 and E85. The Kum & Go in Fairfield is one of the few convenience stores offering bio-diesel.

Sustainable Materials

The majority of the construction materials used to build the store were manufactured regionally, containing raw materials sourced from within 500 miles. Over 50% of all wood materials are FSC certified. Additionally, the steel and concrete contain high percentages of recycled content.

Reflective Concrete

The store’s parking lot is treated with a high-reflective white coating that reflects the sun’s heat. This reduces the “heat-island effect” by reducing the parking lot temperatures. Normally, pavement, dark-colored roofs, and similar surfaces absorb more sunlight, trap heat, and increase local temperatures. The reduction of the temperature helps save energy used to cool the building and reduces surface level ozone.

Bike Rack & Changing Rooms

The store design provides bicycle racks for associates and customers, as well as locking restroom facilities for changing. Alternative forms of transportation reduce traffic congestion.

High Efficiency Heating and Air Conditioning

The heating and air conditioning systems at this store have a high efficiency rating. The store has an optimized direct digital control (DDC) and a high-level filtration system that maintains excellent indoor air quality for customers and associates. Additionally, most refrigeration equipment used inside the store is Energy Star certified.

Day Lighting (Prismatic Skylights)

Honeycomb-shaped prisms in the roof, called Solatubes, reduce glare and refract daylight into the building. Natural lighting enhances colors and saves electricity.

Reflective Roof

The roof of the store is covered with a white rubber finish that reflects the sun’s heat. Similar to the reflective concrete used on the parking lot, This decreases heat transfer to the store interior, reducing the amount of energy needed to cool the building.

Electric Car Charging Station

Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station is behind the store and looks like an air station. This device supplies electricity for recharging plug-in electric vehicles, including all-electric cars, neighborhood electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

Rain Gardens & Bioswales

Rain Garden at a Kum & Go Gas Station, Fairfield, Iowa

There are three interconnected bioswales on this site. These bioswales effectively filter and detain all of the rainwater produced by the impermeable surfaces on the site. Specifically, Kum & Go wanted to protect the headwaters of the Indian Creek watershed from hydrocarbon runoff. The bioswales prevent any hydrocarbon runoff while reducing the water velocity that is destructive to local streams.

Scott Timm said, “We are very happy and fortunate to work with Kum & Go to protect the headwaters of Indian Creek.” Scott Timm is the Iowa State University Extension program specialist who is helping move Fairfield’s Go Green strategic plan from concept to reality. Scott said the Fairfield, Iowa Kum & Go went well above and beyond what they typically do. “We are very very pleased with the team effort.”

The new Kum & Go in Fairfield, Iowa is an outstanding example of how green construction not only benefits patrons, business owners, and employee but also benefits an entire community – especially our water quality.

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Presented by Tom Barrett

Thursday, May 12, 2011

6 p.m. to 8 p.m

Chicago Center for Green Technology

445 N. Sacramento Blvd.

Chicago, Illinois

Green infrastructure is a transformative approach to sustainable site development utilizing rain gardens, bioswales and engineered elements to create a water management system that protects, restores, and mimics the natural water cycle. This integration of natural and built environments provides benefits such as cleaner water, ecosystem conservation, wildlife habitat and aesthetic appeal. Additionally, green infrastructure can be accomplished at a significantly lower cost than conventional concrete and mortar infrastructure. Join Tom Barrett as he explains how harvesting locally produced water helps develop a “natural approach” to the efficient use of water and relieves stormwater problems.

AIA/CES: 2 EU

Learning Objectives

• Understanding that stormwater is the largest source of water pollution in the United States

• Combining “green infrastructure” with existing, conventional “gray infrastructure,” as well as combining new technology with old technology creating a sustainable future.

This program is presented free of charge as part of the Chicago Center for Green Technology’s Green Tech U program. Registration is required by calling 312-746-9642 or by emailing your requested class and contact information to greentech@cityofchicago.org with “Green Tech U” in the subject line.

Tom Barrett has been delivering energetic, dynamic presentations and training for over twenty years. These presentations empower people to become masters of change rather than victims of circumstance by developing tools for transformational thinking. For more information, please visit Book Tom Barrett.

About Green Water Infrastructure:

Green Water Infrastructure is a consulting company that integrates water resources for sustainable site development. Their goal is to utilize one hundred percent of the on-site water resources at a site. Green Water saves communities money by combining green infrastructure with gray infrastructure and new technology with existing technology to create sustainable growth — environmentally and socially. For more information, please visit www.thinkgwi.com.

About the Chicago Center for Green Technology

The Chicago Center for Green Technology is the first rehabilitated municipal; building in the nation to receive the leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ™ (LEED) Platinum rating by the U.S. Green Building Council. Mayor Richard M. Daley dedicated the building in 2001 and it has since become a national model for sustainable design and technology. The Center serves as the most comprehensive green design and educational resource in the Midwest.

I recently wrote a guest blog on Sustainability Starts with Your Landscape for Stefan Lubike the owner of SiteLine Design.

Recognizing sustainability as merely reducing energy waste, recycling, or conserving water is a common misconception. In truth, the greatest impact on the environment you can make is right in your own backyard.

At a recent TEDxMidwest presentation, Majora Carter (@MajoraCarter) talks about three individual who made a difference in their communities. These three individual who implemented practical solutions to community improverishment issues.

It is time to work together to embrace and repair our land, repair our power systems and repair ourselves. It’s time to stop building the shopping malls, the prisons, the stadiums and other tributes to all of our collective failures. It is time that we start building living monuments to hope and possibility.”

— Majora Carter

Charity Does Not Equal Sustainability

Chicago

Brenda Palms-Farber was hired to help ex-convicts reenter society and keep them from going back into prison. Currently, taxpayers spend about $60,000 per year sending a person to jail. We know that two-thirds of them are going to go back. I find it interesting that, for every one dollar we spend, however, on early childhood education, like Head Start, we save $17 on stuff like incarceration in the future. Or — think about it — that $60,000 is more than what it costs to send one person to Harvard as well . . .

Los Angeles

Water is a big issue for Los Angeles. On most day Los Angeles does not have enough water and too much to handle when it rains. Currently, 20 percent of California’s energy consumption is used to pump water into mostly Southern California. Their spending loads, loads, to channel that rainwater out into the ocean when it rains and floods as well. Now Andy Lipkis is working to help L.A. cut infrastructure costs associated with water management and urban heat island — linking trees, people and technology to create a more livable city. All that green stuff actually naturally absorbs storm water, also helps cool our cities. Because, come to think about it, do you really want air-conditioning, or is it a cooler room that you want? How you get it shouldn’t make that much of a difference . . .

West Virginia

Judy Bonds is a coal miner’s daughter. Her family has eight generations in a town called Whitesville, West Virginia. If anyone should be clinging to the former glory of the coal mining history, and of the town, it should be Judy. But the way coal is mined right now is different from the deep mines that her father and her father’s father would go down into and that employed essentially thousands and thousands of people. Now, two-dozen men can tear down a mountain in several months, and only for about a few years-worth of coal. That kind of technology is called mountaintop removal. It can make a mountain go from this to this in a few short months. Just imagine that the air surrounding these places — it’s filled with the residue of explosives and coal. When we visited, it gave some of the people we were with this strange little cough after being only there for just a few hours or so — not just miners, but everybody . . .

Although the Senate has decided to delay any legislation that fully addresses some of our most pressing environmental concerns, the recent trip to Washington D.C. was a positive step in accomplishing this goal. Led by Jesse Kharbanda, Executive Director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, we met with our Congressional delegation and shared with them in person some of our greatest personal and social concerns regarding the environment and the government’s stewardship of these crucial issues.

While there is still a long road to travel as we work to improve and renew our environment, it became abundantly clear that regardless of any partisanship, we seem to want the same thing: a cleaner, healthier environment. It was important for the delegation to hear that green development is not only environmentally crucial, but that it is also an economically viable form of investment that strengthens the whole nation.

Initially we discussed the importance of pushing a “Cap and Trade” concept forward; it became evident that we needed to address the most immediate pressing environmental issues with lifestyle modifications and alternative energy strategies. The US currently has the largest per capita carbon footprint of any country in the world putting us behind such emerging powerhouses at India, China, and Brazil. Deciding how to overcome that issue is tantamount, but we must also keep in mind the need to re-emerge as a leader by example as we begin to develop and utilize a more responsible awareness of the by-products of our social conveniences..